


Barrier of Time

by melagan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Canon Related, Friendship, Gen, Trope Bingo Round 15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27193745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melagan/pseuds/melagan
Summary: It's another time dilation field. The only way out will destroy the planet.
Relationships: Rodney McKay & John Sheppard
Comments: 16
Kudos: 38





	Barrier of Time

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my Trope Bingo: AU Apocalypse square
> 
> *

John settled into the joy of flying Jumper One. He flicked his gaze from the display over to his co-pilot, McKay. Yep, there was that crooked smile, almost matching the one on his own face.

Rodney might bluster and deny it, but he loved exploring new places as much as John did. Well, assuming the natives weren't hostile, and the Wraith weren't around. Oh, hell, might as well throw in—as long as there were no Ancient ascension devices because that never turned out well. 

It hadn't been hard to talk Rodney into coming along. A little scouting trip like this didn't need the whole team. That would come later, assuming they could use PX-932 for an Alpha site.  
Besides, if John wanted to check out the coastline for breakers, Rodney wouldn't tell anyone. 

The space gate hung in the sky in front of them. "Dial it up, McKay." 

Rodney punched in the code and the gate flared to life. 

The uninhabited planet below read as typical earth-standard. He checked but no atmosphere or pressure warnings came up on the display. John waited to see if Rodney had anything to add, but he didn't even look up from his tablet.

The landing was rougher than John liked and he was about to apologize to his baby when a streak of warnings lights came on. "McKay!"

"I'm picking up a strange energy reading." Rodney stared out the viewport. "This is telling me we bumped into something, but there's nothing out there."

Nothing out there except for an eerie calm that made the hairs on the back of John's neck stand up. He gave it another minute for Rodney to put his two-cents-worth of bitching in as ran his hands over the controls trying to figure out what in hell they'd bumped into. 

Instead of a litany of complaints, a white-faced Rodney grabbed John by the front of his vest and hauled him up out of his seat. Before he had time to protest, Rodney had shoved him into the back of the jumper and nearly toppled them both over in his rush to follow. 

John staggered to his feet. "McKay! What the hell do you think you're doing!" 

Instead of answering, Rodney slammed his hand down on the control for the bulkhead door, sealing them off. 

"You'd better have a damn good reason for this."

"I do." Rodney's pale face wore that we're-in-shit-now look that John had come to hate. "Look." 

An almost invisible shimmer of energy stopped just inside the bulkhead door. 

"What is that?" John asked, reaching for his sidearm.

"A temporal net. Forget it. You can't shoot it, Sheppard."

"I can try."

Rodney rolled his eyes and then held up the tablet for John to see. "According to these readings, the entire forward compartment has been dragged into a time dilation field."

"I hate those things."

"Yes, well, I'd just as soon stay away from it myself." Rodney picked up his pack, began stuffing it with extra supplies. 

"Rodney, explain!" John demanded, while following Rodney's lead. 

"No time. We have to move. Now." Shooting a worried glance in John's direction, he opened the rear hatch.

Outside, it was a beautiful day. A mild breeze ruffled the tall grass, puffy, white clouds floated above in a pale, blue sky, and birds could be heard chirping not far from them. 

John stuck his head out. "It looks okay." He stepped outside and turned to look at the front of the jumper. Instead, his gaze turned upwards. "Crap."

A translucent dome of energy covered the landscape; stretching as far as the eye could see. Nothing inside it moved. A hard lump formed in John's throat when he spotted at least three of the planet's avian species caught like inside it like a fly in amber. He drew in a sharp breath when he turned to look at the jumper. The entire front end of his baby was caught the side of the dome. "Rodney?"

"Hm. Oh, my. That is interesting."

"I don't care that it's interesting. I want to know why it's there and how do we get the jumper out."

Remember when you were caught in the time dilation field?"

John grimaced. He didn't like where this conversation was going—at all. 

"We must have grazed it when you landed and now the that the entire jumper is being pulled in, there's no way to pull it back out."

"Right." His own trip through the time dilation field had been no picnic and he wasn't about to be caught in another one, He tugged on Rodney's arm, pulling both of them further away from the jumper. 

"Why the hell is that thing even here?" John asked.

Rodney shrugged. "Best guess? We're dealing with a Taranis situation with a volcano of similar size."

"Eruption - equals extinction event - equals bad. Heard it before, Rodney." John folded his arms across his chest and waited for the doom and gloom to come spilling out of McKay's mouth. He didn't have to wait long.

"No, Sheppard, I don't think you have." Rodney waved towards the dome. "This time, the Ancients threw a time dilation field over the entire thing to slow it down. I say, slow it down because not even the Ancients could stop time entirely. Time is just moving very very slowly."

The ground shook underneath their feet and John instinctively reached out to steady Rodney. "I'm guessing after 10,000 years its time is about out?"

Rodney's face of gloom was enough of an answer. Damn it. He gripped Rodney's arm just a little bit tighter. "Won't it just erupt—oh I don't know—very slowly?"

"It won't matter," Rodney said. "I have no idea what physical stress of an eruption combined with the time differential stress created by the temporal net will do to this planet's core, but my guess is that it won't be good."

"How long have we got?" John asked.

"In case you didn't notice, the ground under our feet is already warm. Even with time slowed down, I give it a few months, a year at the outside." Rodney turned to look at the jumper and John's heart sank. 

"What's being caught in this thing doing to my jumper, Rodney?"

"The only reason the jumper hasn't been ripped in two already is because it's Ancient." He turned to search John's face. "We need to get it out of there sooner rather than later or we're dead men."

Rodney's expression was enough to know that they were living on borrowed time. Great. "What's the plan? C'mon, McKay, you always have a plan."

Color slowly came back into Rodney's face and John congratulated himself for hitting the right tone. 

Rodney straightened his shoulders. "We find the power source and shut it down, obviously."

"Obviously. Sure thing. Where is it?" John grit his teeth while Rodney poked at his tablet. The minutes ticked by and just as he was about to lose patience, Rodney's head snapped up. 

"That way," he said, pointing forty-five degrees to John's left. "It's close, only…"

John narrowed his eyes. "Only what?"

"There's a high probability that the controls are underground. John, once we turn the net off this entire area going to become unstable. Earthquakes, steam vents, possible imminent eruption—"

John gently pushed Rodney in the right direction. "We can worry about getting out after we shut it down.

*

On the bright side, it only took twenty minutes to reach the underground control room. John's gene handled getting opening the doors like a trooper. But, once inside, the place was a maze of equipment. All of it old and most of it drained of power.

One look at the mess and it didn't take a genius to realize the planet was on borrowed time. John doubted that Rodney's estimate of months would hold. Weeks seemed more likely. 

John poked at some of the dead consoles while Rodney worked. He hated waiting when he had nothing to do. There wasn't even anything around to shoot at. After being extremely patient for a full fifteen minutes, he asked, "How much longer?"

"Almost got it. This one control is stuck. Come over here, and see if you can get your pretty gene to talk to it."

"This one?" John held his hand over the offending crystal and thought _on_. A tiny light began to shine from the center of the crystal gradually gaining in strength. "I've never seen one do that before."

"This entire system is unlike any I've seen before," Rodney said. "Pity, we've going to destroy it all."

"To survive." John remained him. "How long do we have to get topside after you shut it down?"

"Running would be good." Rodney took a deep breath. "Ready?"

John nodded, and Rodney hit the off-switch. The reaction was immediate. Rodney gripped the edge of the console as John braced his feet while the ground heaved beneath them. 

"Time to go!" Unsurprising, he didn't have to prod McKay forward this time, but he stuck to Rodney's heels as they raced through the tunnel. 

They were almost at the surface when the next tremor hit. Loose rock came tumbling down from the ceiling and John shoved Rodney to the side, catching the brunt of the rockfall with his hip and ribs. 

"John!" 

"Keeping moving!"

"But you're hurt!" 

"Better than dead. Move it!" 

"Oh, don't even!" Rodney slung John's arm over his shoulder and helped him stand. He tried to protest, but a wave of pain hit forcing him to grit his teeth instead. 

They made to the surface without further injury, thank, god. But instead of the comfort it should have been, ash and smoke filled the air. Visibility was already crap, and it was getting hard to breathe. 

Without hesitating, Rodney tore his own shirt sleeves off. He doused them with water from his canteen and helped wrap one over John's mouth. He tied the other around his own. "I hope like hell, you know which direction the jumper's in," he muttered through the cloth. 

"It's that way." John hoped Rodney wouldn't ask why he was so certain. The little game of mental Tag-You're-It, he periodically played with the jumpers didn't need to come to light. Ever. God, Rodney would never let him live it down.

The jumper lay just ahead. She was free of the temporal net, but the ash had left a dirty coating all over her exterior. Rodney helped him to the pilot's seat and John collapsed into it gratefully. 

"Systems all check," Rodney said, running over the display even faster than John could manage. "Get us out of here!"

John flew the jumper up above the toxic atmosphere and hovered at a safe distance. Rodney didn't question why. Or make one smart remark about unnecessary sightseeing when they should be hightailing to the gate.

There was no escaping the fact that they'd hastened the planet's demise. Staying to bear witness seemed the least he could do. Somberly, John watched as PX-932 began tearing itself apart. 

"It was going to happen whether we were there or not. The planet only had a few months at most," Rodney quietly said, echoing John's thoughts. 

"Yeah." John waited a beat. "Rodney, the planet's not going to recover from this is it?"

"If you want to blame someone, blame the Ancients. May they started out trying to help, but their trick with the temporal net has added exponentially to the stress on the planet's core."

The silence grew until Rodney cleared his throat and barked, "Amateur."

"What!" While he'd been watching the destruction, Rodney had leaned back, made himself comfortable, and was chewing on a power bar.

"You. This. Whereas I—my friend—have blown up five-sixths of a solar system. You just helped me with one measly little planet. You aren't even close to topping me."

"You—you," John sputtered, "You think this is a competition?"

Rodney grinned back. 

A smile highjacked John's face without warning and suddenly, for this moment, the galaxy didn't seem so grim. "Ready to head back?"

"Oh, hell, yes. And John? I've had my turn. You get to explain this one to Elizabeth."

~*~


End file.
